Iran's Hard Line Begins At Home

When Behnaz Mohsenian, 29, started English lessons at Tehran's Najdad Institute this spring, the 15 men and women in her class studied grammar sitting in mixed circles. Last month the language school split the group by gender, with men and women meeting on different days. Now plans are under way to move the women's classes to a separate building, to eliminate altogether the possibility of illicit mingling. "It feels," says Mohsenian, "as if we're all incapable of behaving like normal people and need to be regulated at all times."

TIME's Tehran correspondent examines what daily life is really like in Iran